Home
by WooWoo4511
Summary: Seeing Olivia after over 20ys has Lincoln thinking back to the time right before he made his decision to move the the alternate universe.


This is just a really short kinda of thing I wrote while in the midst of a period of boredom :)

**Home**

"_It's crazy," he pauses, "How life works out."_

_She gives him a slight smile and says, "It's ok. I made my choices, you made yours. I don't regret any of them and neither should you."_

_She steps closer to him and looks him in his eyes._

"_You deserve all the happiness that you got." _

Seeing Olivia from his former "home" after over 20yrs brought back a lot of feelings and memories that had been lying dormant in the recesses of Lincoln's mind.

"_She's your Olivia…I get it." _

Feelings of a period in time when he felt rejected, out of place, and lost in an everlasting maze of obstacles that threatened to break him. He can still feel traces of the hurt and disappointment he felt when Olivia returned the pendant that his deceased partner Robert had given him.

"…_How did I wind up with it?" Olivia ask._

"_Actually I gave it to you a few months back when you came to see me in the hospital. It was a 'thank you' for saving my life. You don't remember me telling you what this symbolizes?"_

_She shakes her head no._

"_It's Native American. The maze represents the journey of life. The obstacles, making the right choices till we find ourselves in the center."_

"_What's in the center?" She curiously ask._

"_Home," he tells her, "A place to belong." _

Lincoln recalls feeling that he was trapped in his own maze having yet to find his home. All of that changed when Astrid walked through the lab doors with a bunch of files on that same day.

"_I was supposed to take my dad to Castle Island today. I promised him." Astrid tells him after explaining that she had to go to the other universe to do a debrief on David Robert Jones. Lincoln comments on the effect the "perks" of their jobs has on promises._

_He looks around the lab and sees Peter and Walter preparing to take Gene on a 'Grazing Day' along with Olivia then back at Astrid who also had her own plans. Realizing he's the only one without anything to do he makes a quick decision. He looks at Astrid and says, "What if I went for you…" _

Lincoln knows those six simple words were the start of a path that led him to acceptance, happiness, and most importantly _love_. He smiles down at the beautiful red-head curled into his side seemingly engrossed in an old "Mantis" movie. He laughs inwardly at the first time he learned of such a thing as "Mantis." He recalls it was after he failed at making a joke.

"_Maybe Batman's moving to the Bronx," He says, pleased with his cleverness until Olivia ask… "What's a Batman?"_

_Lincoln is astonished by the fact that they don't know who Batman is._

"_The cape crusader, the dark knight," he says trying to get them to remember, "The billionaire playboy who puts on a cape to clean up the streets of Gotham."_

"_You mean 'Mantis'" Captain Lee says in correction._

_Lincoln looks at them incredulously._

"_Seriously, your superhero is an insect?"_

_Olivia frowns and quickly retorts, "Oh cuz nothing says 'badass' like a flying rat." _

Lincoln wraps both arms around Olivia bringing her closer to him and places a kiss on the top of her head. He took Astrid's place to escape a universe where he no longer felt he belonged to arrive in one where he felt completely at ease. He thinks back to how Captain Lee caught on to the fact that Lincoln didn't want to go "home." He remembers trying to play it off all the while knowing his doppelgänger was right. He had had no desire to return anytime soon. In, at the time, what he considered the "other" universe he felt he had a purpose, that he had a job to do, and he felt apart of the team. Something he hadn't felt in years at the time, but what was keeping him from wanting to return even more so was the woman that would become _his_ Olivia. Especially after Captain Lee died. Lincoln recalls approaching Olivia in the locker room and feeling like a dumbass when he realized he was probably the last face she wanted to see.

_He turns to walk away, but stops when she says, "Lincoln, it's fine," and points to the bench across from her._

"_What's up?" She ask._

"_They collected a lot of Intel on Jones. There's more work to be done. I thought I'd stick around for a while. Figured you'd need some help."_

_He feels relieved when she says, "Thanks. That'll be nice." _

Looking back, yes he wanted to help out with the case, but he also wanted to be there to support and protect Olivia. In a short period of time he had begun to feel undeniably close to her. So when Jones' plans became evident and the decision was made that the bridge between the universes had to be closed…Lincoln knew what side of the bridge he would be on.

"_Remember how you said 'Home is where the heart is'?" Lincoln ask Peter._

_Peter furrows his eyebrows._

"_This might be crazy," Lincoln says as he glances of at the alternate universe's Olivia, "I think I found mine." _

Even now Lincoln is surprised at how easy the decision to move to a whole other universe was for him. He had no doubts when he walked to stand next to _his_ Olivia.

"_Thought you could use a little help." He says with ease as he takes in her shocked expression. She turns away from him as if she can't believe what he's about to do._

_He leans towards her and ask, "Could you help me find an apartment?" _

He smiles as he recalls the hint of a smile that appeared on her lips. Reminiscing over it all, Lincoln realizes that he should keep all of these memories closer to his heart because they all played a part in his journey of life to the center of his maze.

"…Lincoln? Lincoln!"

Olivia's voice cuts through his thoughts. He gazes down at her and ask, "What?"

"I was just saying the movie's over."

"Oh." He says still not quite back in the present.

"Are you Ok?" Olivia ask.

"Yeah, I was just doing some thinking."

"About what?"

He gently kisses her lips and smiles.

"About how I found my way home."


End file.
